The story coming out of Saturday’s loss to Virginia should be that Syracuse has lost 6 of 7 games and completely fallen out of any chance to make the NCAA Tournament during this tretch. It’s clear we are heading towards a coaching change in March, but the disappointment has fans going off the rails.
Instaed of talk about what the team didn’t do on the court, the majority of conversation revolves around Adrian Autry’s decision not to play Kiyan Anthony for the first time all season. The decision came
after Carmelo commented “SMDH” on Instagram sometime during the loss to UNC.
Many jumped to conclusions that Autry was punishing Kiyan and acted like Autry’s post-game comment wasn’t specific enough.
“No injury concerns. It was just my decision,” Autry said after the game. “This is a physical team, experienced team. It was just my decision. Nothing else.”
If people would have held off from freaking out that Kiyan was leaving/Melo was pulling all his support, they could have waited to see Melo’s response.
Of course another Syracuse loss isn’t a story nationally. The most famous player on the team not playing is going to draw the clicks. As a fanbase, we’re crashing into a fifth straight season without a NCAA Tournament appearance. We could be heading to a second sub.500 season so we get that emotions are running hot….but let’s all just take a deep breath here.
Syracuse is struggling to find anything that works this season. Autry has admitted he’ll try anything and yesterday that was trying to use a shorter bench and Bryce Zephir as the only reserve guard. Starters Nait George and JJ Starling had combined for 20 1st-half points and shot 14-23 for the game and Autry attempted to ride their scoring to an upset win.
A bigger critique from Saturday would be the 1 shot attempt for Tyler Betsey in hs 17 minutes. On an afternoon where Donnie Freeman struggled, the Orange needed someone who could make some outside shots and the half-court offense once again was non-existent. You can rightfully argue that Kiyan offers more offense than Zephir and I wouldn’t have had issues with him being used in the second half when Starling went cold…but you can see the argument against that. Anthony is shooting 29% from 3 in ACC play. In the five games prior, he had contributed 4 rebounds and 2 assists total.
The story blowing up isn’t a surprise. What is a little disappointing is that fans have taken it to the extreme. In the last 48 hours, I’ve seen people say that Syracuse never pays for a MBB HC, or won’t hire from outside. While true, can you use that argument when a school has made two HC hires in the last 50 years? Can you use that when the Orange just hired a HC for football who had no ties to the University?
I’m not telling you to be naive about the situation and ignore the reality. Fans can expect more than what men’s basketball is giving them- everyone knows this isn’t meeting bare minimum expectations. While I appreciate Felisha Legette-Jack’s attempts to try and support a friend and colleague, I fear scolding fans often gets received in the opposite manner- especially by the nameless burners it’s directed at. What I do think is realistic is this part:
“Can you try, Syracuse? Can we try to be a little bit more positive with the sport that’s struggling?” Legette-Jack said.
Just try Orange fans. It’s been a brutal winter in Central New York and we don’t need to invent scenarios to make things more miserable. We have enough to worry about the future without adding hypotheticals to create more panic.
If you can’t do that, I’d suggest turning more of your attention to women’s basketball and lacrosse until we officially get into the coaching search. The last few weeks aren’t going to be better so let’s all try not to go completely off the deep end.
